Your Input Without Personal Attacks

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Okay, here I go starting a controversial thread...

No, seriously, I read this in one of my books for school, and I was hoping someone could clarify this.

"A student's lanugage is part of who she or he is. Rejecting it is interpreted as a personal rejection. Everyone speaks a dialect, which is determined by place of birth, socioeconomic status, and other factors. Some African-American children speak a dialect known as Black English. It is very similar to standard English. The differences between the two dialects are minor and include features such as dropping the suffixes -ing and -ed, omitting the word is ("He busy"), and some variations in pronunciation such as "pin" for pen... Rather than correcting or eradicating the variant dialect... [it is recommended]that standard English be presented as a second dialect that students may use if they wish." (Gunning, Thomas, excerpted from Creating Literacy, 2005)
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they are asking me, as an educator, not to correct improper pronunciation or grammar. without making personal attacks, i was wondering what people's opinions are. personally, i don't think it's right, although i know what needs to be done to pass my class. there are plenty of people on both sides of the issue.

anyone?
 
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OMG......my head just exploded.......:rolleyes:

If we don't correct improper usage of our language, we will all eventually, not understand each other....for fear of offending another?

I think it's part of the 'new curriculum' trend in educating. I see it carrying over into my children's work as well. Not just English, but math as well as other studies. The 'trend' seems to be for the teacher not to 'correct' their children's work???:confused: One of the teachers remarked that she wasn't 'allowed' to give spelling tests????

If we don't all use the same 'language', how are we to learn properly and communicate? I do not see this 'thought' uniting America but dividing America. Our speech and written language will now be a 'tell tale sign' of our 'place of birth, socioeconomic status, and other factors' to further define our socioeconomic 'classes'.



So now our children will bring safety pins to school to copy down their homework assignments?? (pens=pins) Too confusing...should be one language used, especially in school settings. Our immigrant relatives learned using English in school and spoke their 'mother language' in their homes. They survived and did very well.

Excepted from Preco....Creating Illiterates, 2006
 
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If the entire educational system goes this route, they might as well drop English from the curricula. These children, when grown, will still be viewed by many as uneducated. I may have more thoughts later.
 
I could not agree more wht Preco and spaz. (did I just say that?)
I grew up in the deep DEEP south and we had our own 'dialect'. I grew up around very poor and very uneducated blacks who had their own dialect. After college I moved to South Florida, which, culturally is a northern area. Fortunately, I had been educated in proper english, so I could make the transition to understand others and be understood. A couple of years later a black man was hired as a inter-company mailman. He was from the DEEP South.
Out of 15 people in my work location, I was the only person who could understand this man's speech. It was like a foreign language to everyone else.

Children need to learn proper english without being humiliated or chastised for how they were taught to speak at home.
 
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Wow...thanks Dan...

I just keep hearing Joe Pesce in 'My Cousin Vinnie' with his 'two yoots'....LOL
 
Do you remember the "Airplane" movies in the '80's? The spoofs, not the disaster flicks. In the first one there were too black guys on the plane who only spoke 'jive'. Barbara Billingsley (aka June Cleaver) was the only one on the plane who could talk to them. It was just like that, but without the laughtrack.
 
By not giving our children the 'tools' to communicate with others, does limit their ability and possibilities in the work force.

If I were to be in another country and unable to speak their language, communicate on a 'higher level', I would be 'forced' into positions of 'menial manual labor'...only to produce and serve others. Very limiting with not many options to 'live up to my true potential', only because I couldn't communicate.... I don't see this as a positive progression in education.
 
I think all these"politicaly correct" *ull is just that *ull.If a student is not pronouncing something the correct way they should be corrected.How will they ever learn to do something the right way if they are not taught ?English is my second language and I was never offended when someone corrected me for using the english language incorrectly,many times I was not aware that I was incorrect until someone pointed it out to me.
 
I agree with you all too (it's nice that we are agreeing). It is one thing to have slang terms or local lingo, but not using proper grammar is a issue. I moved up into the New England area after I was married and I didnt understand a word anyone said for weeks. Sure their accent was different, but there was bad grammar too (dropping or changing endings "not pizza but pizzer") People that I worked with thought I talked "proper." Dont get me wrong New England-ers - I love you, I just cant understand you!

But here is something I thought of while reading the other comments: Do other countries do this? Are there different types of Chinese, Japanese, French or Spanish language?
 
Kadin' mama, my husband is from Venezuela. Venezuelan spanish and the Mexican's spanish are VERY different. There is a lot of slang used in that language too.

I am in agreement with you all as well. I can't believe this country's education system. It scares me. I'm leaning more and more towards homeschooling....
 
Hey thanks Bluesky! I guess it would make sense for other languages to have slang and bad grammar.

I am really curious about Chinese or Japanese because their culture seems so strict and disiciplined - especially education.
 
There are different dialects of all languages, but no other "education" system to my knowledge is more concerned with a student's 'self esteem' than with their education. Having a worthless High School diploma and being functionally illiterate will screw up your 'self esteem' for life.

Speaking of illiterate (sp?) Mr. Spoofee, could we get a spell checker ?

Thanks!
 
Just a thought....is this 'new' concept in teaching being adopted in 'private schools' as well?

:hmm: Those educated 'publically' include the 'lower income', while the 'private schools' generally have more 'higher income' students....:hmm:
 
DanC said:
Speaking of illiterate (sp?) Mr. Spoofee, could we get a spell checker ?
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I thought preco and I were the spell checkers. :tongue:
 
Big Daddy said:
I thought preco and I were the spell checkers. :tongue:
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So... did I spell it correctly?
 
precocious said:
Just a thought....is this 'new' concept in teaching being adopted in 'private schools' as well?

:hmm: Those educated 'publically' include the 'lower income', while the 'private schools' generally have more 'higher income' students....:hmm:
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My mom teaches in private school, and I know that where she teaches, this is not the case. Even the principal there will correct your grammar if it's the slightest bit off. Don't think this will be adopted in private schools in this area....
 
precocious said:
Just a thought....is this 'new' concept in teaching being adopted in 'private schools' as well?

:hmm: Those educated 'publically' include the 'lower income', while the 'private schools' generally have more 'higher income' students....:hmm:
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I don't know about the private schools, but the government schools have an obligation to train the lower tier employees that the homeschooled and privately schooled business owners of tomorrow will need.
 
DanC said:
So... did I spell it correctly?
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:claps: You did good!


BTW the little box in the upper right hand corner of the 'reply box' - the one with the ABC and the check - is the spell checker - but it's not always accurate..;)
 
DanC said:
I don't know about the private schools, but the government schools have an obligation to train the lower tier employees that the homeschooled and privately schooled business owners of tomorrow will need.
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Absolutely...that's what I was referring to. Are the 'masses' and the 'lower tiered' being kept 'lower tiered'?
 
For once I too am in agreement, this country needs to stop adapting because certain people speak broken english. Can you picture corporate america saying things like "You so crazy" and "He busy"? I think our economy would suffer b/c we would appear uneducated and ignorant to the global economy.
 
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